Canes encouraged by win
If anyone can deny the Crusaders a ninth Super Rugby title, it’s the Hurricanes.
They have won eight of their last 12 clashes with the Crusaders, which includes being the last team to defeat them in Christchurch. That was in July 2016, when the Hurricanes had gone south with enough luggage to then go on to Johannesburg.
Only they thumped the hosts 35-10, and had enough results go their way, that they ended up playing all their playoff games at Westpac Stadium. Three weeks later they were Super champions.
They’ll be packing for Africa this time as well, given the probability that the Lions will beat the Waratahs in one semifinal. That just leaves the Hurricanes to do the same at AMI Stadium on Saturday night.
They’ll have to be smart and they’ll have to be tough and, encouragingly, did both in beating the Chiefs 32-31 in last Friday’s quarterfinal in Wellington.
‘‘What they were good at was choosing their rucks wisely,’’ Chiefs captain Sam Cane said after a match in which the Hurricanes had counter-rucked strongly.
‘‘So sometimes they wouldn’t contest at all and we’d send our two, sometimes three, cleaners there expecting [a contest] and then they’d really bring some heat at another one.
‘‘Where I thought the Canes were good was they brought the linespeed and their rush defence back into play. The last couple of years they’ve been really good [at it] but it hasn’t been implemented as well [this year] as it was before. But they were really strong.’’
Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd singled out Gareth Evans for particular praise. More often a No 8 or blindside flanker, Evans was on the openside on Friday and is likely to be against the Crusaders.
No-one has won more turnovers for the Hurricanes this season than him and he was at it again against the Chiefs. The team’s regular openside, Ardie Savea, is back running but not considered a chance to return from his ankle injury this week.
Whoever is in the Hurricanes pack against the Crusaders, they have to stand up. Opposition teams have tended to be rewarded for testing the toughness of the Hurricanes forwards and, according to captain Brad Shields, it’ll be up to Sam Lousi and Michael Fatialofa to lead the resistance on Saturday.
‘‘There’s a big emphasis on the front five.
‘‘I thought the two locks [Fatialofa and Lousi] put some big defensive hits in and some big carries and that’s exactly what we want them to do; just truck the ball up and do their job with some intent,’’ Shields said.
‘‘There was a lot of heat put on them this week and they stood up really well. That gives a lot of energy to the rest of us.’’
Second five-eighth Ngani Laumape put a couple of good shots on in defence, for instance, while wings Julian Savea and Ben Lam were far more physical than in recent weeks. The trick now is for the whole team to raise those levels even higher in Christchurch.
‘‘It’s been an interesting period because we qualified for the playoffs probably six weeks ago and, when we lost the game to the Crusaders [24-13] before the June break, at that stage we were probably not going to finish top and so we’ve been just muddling along a little bit,’’ Boyd said.
‘‘When we applied some defensive pressure to [the Chiefs] and hoed into that part of it and started dominating some of the collisions, we got a lot of energy from that and it flowed on [to the rest of our game].’’
‘‘That’s exactly what we want them to do; just truck the ball up and do their job with some intent.’’ Hurricanes captain Brad Shields on locks Sam Lousi and Michael Fatialofa